Focus on Hallmark Homes Plus 6 Happy Holiday Cocktail & Platter Hacks!

December 15, 2017

Christmas Cocktails? Check. Beautifully styled Designer Homes? Check. Perfect Platters? Check. This week’s North Harbour Christmas Blog is good to go!

This week the events team served up two Christmas events, the Residents and Builders Christmas parties respectively. The North Harbour Residents’ Christmas Party was huge and attended by over 300 of our lovely residents who enjoyed a visit from Santa, delicious food, cold drinks, climbing wall, bouncy castle and games – all in the future parklands, next to the heritage precinct on the banks of the beautiful Caboolture River.

If you’re planning on joining in our events, please note there will be a slight change to our programme for the holiday season. North Harbour parkrun will continue during the holidays with a special event held on Saturday 23^rd. Dress up in Christmas outfits and spread some Christmas cheer. Please bring a plate to share and Santa will be providing Zooper Doopers at the finish line for everyone! You can find the event here.

Sunday Sunrise Yoga in the Park will be taking a break on Dec 24^th and Dec 31^st, and returning on January 7^th.

Hallmark Homes

North Harbour’s Display Village has 35 homes on display from 14 local and national builders, all styled to the max and guaranteed to have something to impress even the most jaded house hunter.

This week we’re showcasing Hallmark Homes whose four Display Homes are located adjacent to the sales office at North Harbour. The Hallmark Homes team is proud to have earned an enviable standing within the industry for building exceptional quality homes to superior specifications. With over 60 years combined building industry experience, Hallmark is recognised as one of Queensland’s most dependable and quality-driven project home builders. The team is still as passionate about building quality, affordable homes buyers will love, as they were over 30 years ago.

Hallmark Homes has four designs showcased at North Harbour, The Serene 196, The Edge 208, The Vista 245 and The Aspire 284. To find out more about Hallmark’s designs at North Harbour click here.

To view pricing on Hallmark Homes House and Land Packages head here. If you’d like to discuss land and house options the North Harbour Sales & Information Centre is open until midday on Friday 22^nd December and will reopen on January 2^nd, 2018.

Christmas Cocktails & Snacks

Picture the scene. It’s Christmas, the lead up has gone too quickly, again, and you’re about to have a houseful of guests. Lucky for you, the North Harbour team has tirelessly searched the web for the best Christmas cocktail and snack hacks, bottoms up!

1 – Espresso Martini – A perennial favourite, the espresso martini can easily be added to your Christmas drink menu. Jamie Oliver’s website has a great recipe here and we’ve put together the below for with Christmas twist:

To make two espresso martinis,

• 2 shots espresso – unless you are a coffee snob, any kind of espresso will do and you can premake it and pop it in the fridge to speed things up
• 1 shot Vodka
• 2 shots Kahlua (or Baileys if you want to go for the full Christmas experience)
• coffee beans/ chocolate/ nutmeg for garnish

Fill a cocktail shaker (or put two large scoops in a tough blender) with ice and pour in the espresso, vodka and kahlua/ baileys. Shake until chilled. Pour into two chilled glasses. Garnish with a few coffee beans, sprinkled chocolate or nutmeg for a Christmas finish. 

2 – Cheese straws: Easy to prepare ahead of time, cheese straws are another favourite which add flavour to any platter. We found a great recipe on BBC Good Food with only three ingredients, definitely a winner in the busy lead up to Christmas. Click here for more

3 – Snowballs: Time for a sweet treat now and these snowballs are easy to make with kids and delicious to eat for all ages.

4 – Bloody Mary: It’s red, like Christmas, and has also been known to gently soothe the odd hangover you might experience at this time of year. You can go posh and try this recipe, or simplify and make it classic by clicking here. Both taste great and tomato juice is full of vitamins so it’s really a health drink ;)

5 – Baby bocconcini, cherry tomato and basil skewers:

• Take one cocktail stick
• Skewer a baby bocconcini on it
• Then a basil leaf
• Then cherry tomato
• Add more basil leaves if you want a stronger taste

Et voila! If you want to use this as a finger food version of salad for BBQs, use a bamboo skewer and add more layers, maybe drizzling the platter with balsamic and olive oil

6 – Bucks Fizz: To make sure your Christmas buzz doesn’t become a drone, make some fruity delicious buzz fizz with orange juice and sparkling wine. Adjust the ratios according to how alcholic you want your beverage to be. Click here for more.

Hope your Christmas shopping and partying go well – and have a great week!

The North Harbour Sales & Information Centre will be closed from midday on Friday 22^nd December to 10am Tuesday January 2^nd 2018, as our busy sales team takes some time out to enjoy the holidays. But we’re open every day prior to then (10am-5pm) if you’d like to buy yourself a pretty awesome Christmas gift! For more information on Hallmark Display Homes and available land at North Harbour please contact us or visit our Facebook page to find out more about upcoming local events.